Israel launches ground offensive in Gaza as air strikes continue

Israel has launched a ground offensive in Gaza with residents reporting heavy shelling in the area.

Palestinian health officials say 27 Palestinians, including a baby, two children and a 70-year-old woman, have been killed since Israel sent ground forces into the densely-populated strip of 1.8 million Palestinians.

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For a time today we had a truce and for a time today it seemed there was a a real prospect for a lasting ceasefire. An Israeli official even came back from talks in Cairo and said a deal had been done.

Explosions in Gaza. Credit: ITV News

Military flares in Gaza. Credit: ITV News

Whether that was premature or deliberate misinformation we cannot tell. But tonight, far from peace we have the ugly reality of war. For the first time since 2009, Israeli troops have entered Gaza. Gaza City is tonight illuminated by military flares, even from a distance there is a low rumble of continous explosions.

After ten days of airstrikes, this is the beginning of the land war.
Israel confirmed it is intensifying its operations on all fronts.
This conflict has already cost more than 200 Palestinian lives. Many more are now at risk. And for the first time Israeli soldiers will be in the direct line of fire.

It is quite a tense and a fearful atmosphere here in Gaza right now. the nightly bombardment that we have grown used to over the ten day since we arrived here, got significantly more intense this evening. On our side of it, the Israeli Navy began to pound targets to the north and south of us.

Fearful atmosphere as Gaza awaits further bloodshed. Credit: Reuters

We have been staying at a hotel on the coast, in the west of Gaza City. We received a warning from the Israeli armed forces to leave the coastline so we have come inland now. We have since got information locally that the ground operation has indeed begun.

We heard jets flying low overhead since we arrived, and now we await like the nearly two million inhabitants of Gaza with some apprehension about what the rest of the night holds. But there is of course the clear expectation here that the violence and the bloodshed is going to worsen.

Sirens and loud thuds and flashes of orange light lit the sky in the eastern Gaza strip as Israeli gunboats fired shells and tracer fire, while artillery and helicopters fired over the border, witnesses on both sides of the border said.

Gaza residents and medical officials reported heavy shelling
along the eastern borders from the southern town of Rafah up to
the north of the enclave.

One Israeli civilian has been killed by fire from Gaza. A statement from the Israeli military said the operation will include "infantry, armoured corps, engineer corps, artillery and intelligence combined with aerial and naval support."

Palestinian health officials say 233 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air and naval strikes, while Israeli military says Gaza militants have fired more than 1,300 rockets into Israel.

Before dawn about a dozen Palestinian fighters tunnelled under the border, emerging near an Israeli community. At least one was killed when Israeli aircraft bombed the group, the military said.